In a first, US Republicans support Narendra Modi

In a rare show of partisan support close to elections, influential Republican party lawmakers have welcomed Narendra Modi’s anointment as BJP’s candidate for the top job.

In a rare show of partisan support close to elections, influential Republican party lawmakers have welcomed Narendra Modi’s anointment as BJP’s candidate for the top job.

In recent letters, they also invited Modi to address a gathering of Republican lawmakers and their leaders through satellite link at a Bharat Day event on Capitol Hill on November 19.

And, they assured him, “we are working hard on trying to help to visit the United States”, which refused Modi an official visa in 2005 and cancelled his tourist visa over the 2002 riots.

US politicians are not known to take sides in Indian politics - even at the height of the cold war, Republicans and Democrats felt equally hostile, or friendly.

But Modi may just have changed that.
“I want to congratulate you on winning the nomination of the BJP for Prime Minister of India,” wrote Republican member of House of Representatives Cathy McMorris Rodgers.

She mentioned that she had tried to call him on phone “right after your win, but was unable to connect”. Therefore, the letter, which is in now the possession of
HT.

Rodgers, chair of the House Republican Conference, met Modi in India in March, traveling with two other Republican lawmakers -- Aaron Schock and Cynthia Lummis.Rodgers called that a “trip of a lifetime” in her letter.